There are few better places on earth than the cobalt waters of Narragansett Bay under a cloudless ceiling of spring sunshine. As Rhode Island considers the future of the Bay, WRNI political analyst Scott MacKay says it is important to make sure the that the recreational and environmental uses are balanced with the interests of those who earn their living from our waters.

 For centuries Narragansett Bay has been one the the state's economic and environmenal resources. In colonial times, the bay provided the sheltered harbors that made Rhode Island a major player in the international clipper ship trade. Fish from the bay gave early settlers their food. The state's historic cities _ Bristol, Providence, Newport _ all spawned from the bay.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, as Rhode Island became an economic power house, the bay too often was used as a sewage treatment plant for the textile, machine and jewelery industries. And in every era, the bay was a source of rest and recreation, an escape from urban summer heat.

Now, as a state battered by recession looks to the future, a battle is simmering over how best to use the Providence waterfront, onre of the few places on the bay with an industrial, working port.

Marine busineses that use the bay to repair boats, ship heating opil or unload fish are concerned about being gentrified out of their perches on the bay front by those who favor residential or recreational uses.

Legislation is pending before the state Senate that is designed to protect the state's working waterfront, patricularly the Port of Providence. At a hearing last week at the State House, boat repair, shipping and commercial fishig industry representatives told senators they need protection from the pressure for condominium and commercial development along the coast.

David Cohen of Pro Met Marine, a boat year owner was emphatic, telling senators that there is no way that the condominium crowd can co-exist peacefully with marine industries that make noise 24 hours a day.

What inevitably happens, Cohen says, is that folks in the condominiums get tired of the noise from the boat yards. The condo folks complain to politicians. And they get their way because they organize and vote.

Marine businesses must be on the water. The federal government paid $65 million to dredge the Providence channel to a depth of 40 feet to accomodate shipping. Hotels, condos and restaurants don't have to be directly on the water.

The city of Providence is against the measure to protect marine businesses because officials fear they will lose control of their waterfront zoning to the state. A good point, but the city's waterefront is a state resprce, much like Green Airport. Do we really want the Warwick City Council to control the airport. Don't hold your greath wairing for runway improvements.

One senator with more than  passing interest in this debate is Cranston Democrat Josh Miller. He owne the Hot Club, a Providence waterfront tavern nestled among marine industries and a power plant.

``We have no problems whewre we are,'' says Miller. ``The hards hats are out patrons.''

Once a waterfront becomes a condominium, restaurant and boutique theme park, there is no turning back. These glitzy uses crowd out industry and the bay front is given over to seer sucker suits and Lily Pulitzer dresses.

We can never, of course, compromise the integrity of our beloved bay. This once-polluted estuary has improved much in recent years, thianks to environmental advocacy by Rhode Island citizens and government financing of pollution control programs.

  And somteimes Not-in-my-backyard advocacy is good common sense.

Rhode Islanders of a certain age will remember the plan innthe 1950s to turn the northern half of Jamestown into an oil refinery. At the time the state the state was bleeding jobs as factories fled to the cheap labor American South. Dennis Roberts was governor at the time. Years later, he was asked why he ever supported such a scheme. Roberts somewhat sheepishly replied that times were tough and the state would have allowed just about anything that brought jobs here. 

21st century environmental consciousness means that such a proposal would not be taken seriously today. But we should try to save the blue-collar marine jobs the bay currently provides.